The present invention relates to articles having slip resistant surfaces and to a method of making such articles.
Articles with slip resistant surfaces are utilized primarily in commercial and industrial work or walk areas to inhibit slipping by persons walking or working on such surfaces. Articles with slip resistant surfaces have been heretofore manufactured in numerous forms and by various processes. The present invention relates to articles having such surfaces manufactured by a thermal application of a metallic coat such as by electric (or gas) arc spray. Examples of articles having slip resistant surfaces made by use of electric arc spray are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,511 for Method for Applying Non-Skid Coating to Metal Bars with Electric Arc or Gas Flame Spray and Article Formed Thereby issued Oct. 21, 1986 to William S. Molnar; U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,444 for Metal Bonded Non-Skid Coating and Method of Making Same issued on Dec. 17, 1974 to Maximillian Palena; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,852 for Metal Non-Skid Coating issued on June 14, 1977 to Maximillian Palena. The latter patents show the use of electric arc processing to secure grit to the surface to be roughened. Thus the grit is first applied to the surface of the article and next the grit is bonded to the article surface by metal particles from the electric arc spray utilizing a metal wire as the metal source. With these processes, however, unless special steps are taken the grit can be displaced by virtue of the pressure and/or impact from the metallic spray. The present invention utilizes a unique method for applying a roughened surface to a workpiece. One feature of the invention is to utilize a hollow wire which is filled with metal partial and/or other materials to provide a desired metal alloy or mixture. This technique permits the creation of very hard roughened surfaces by omitting grit and using selected materials which can fuse together to form a desired hard surface. For example, a combination of iron, carbon and aluminum powder fill materials can be used to form a unique rough surface having high hardness. It is also contemplated that grit could be added to the hollow wire such that the grit and metal could be applied simultaneously to the surface to be roughened. The formation of roughened surfaces without grit was suggested in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,511 issued to the present inventor; however, conventional solid wires were contemplated whereby advantages of the present invention were not attainable. Also, while the use of hollow, filled wire has heretofore been used with electric arc spraying, such uses have been for applications other than the formation of slip resistant surfaces. Thus the present invention permits the creation of rough, slip resistant surfaces having a variety of desired characteristics depending upon the materials used in the hollow wire. The use of a flexible hollow wire of a ductile material facilitates its use with the desired fill materials. In this regard the ductile filled wire can be readily coiled and fed to arc spray apparatus.
By use of the hollow wire, filled with the desired materials, selected slip resistant patterns can be expeditiously formed on the article resulting in a savings in processing and in materials used to form the slip resistant surface.
Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and unique article having a slip resistant surface.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method for creating a slip resistant surface on an article.